Browse > Home / Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Shut Up and Drive, Sprint Cup Series, Turn 3 posts / Loose in turn three again

Loose in turn three again

User Avatar

by Charlie Turner

I'm Charlie Turner co-host of the syndicated, mostly NASCAR radio show On Pit Row. Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. Oh yeah, Steve is an idiot.

April 11, 2008 9:58 am CDT 3 Comments

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!


Loose in turn three againWe’ve changed up the format of our “Loose in Turn Three” project.  The three of us, Tim, Bruce and I will still give our thoughts on three NASCAR topicals each week.  The question that I posed to the guys was this:

What do you expect when you tune in a Sprint Cup race?

Charlie:  Depending upon the venue - but only a little bit - I expect ten to fifteen cars that have legit chances to win.  Cup races are the longest, most grueling tests of car, driver, tire and team in NASCAR.  Because of that, I expect that there is likely to be a time during the race where I - as a viewer - can relax and pay less attention.  This is the part that some call boring.  But Cup races are not sprints, they are enduros.  I expect that about 25% of the time, the finish will be unbelievably close, half the time that the final pit stops will determine the winner and the rest of the finishes will not be very close.  And like Carl Edwards said Sunday - I expect a spectacle.

Bruce:  As a viewer, and thinking only as a viewer, the races drag on.  Egads.. it’s time to blog, nap,clean the yard.. oh, wait, I have the TV on my back patio.. I can kick it and drink my favorite adult beverage.  I’d sometimes like to see controlled caution periods every 100 laps.  5 minutes to hydrate the driver, make adjustments on the car and get back out there in the order you came in.  It’s like multiple trophy dashes in one session.  On the other hand, I like the length of the Nationwide Series races.. almost too long, but just about right because when you think it’s starting to drag on, it’s the final 50 laps and you get wound up.. unless you’ve taped it, then the race takes about 20 minutes.  As a knowledgeable fan, you’re right Charlie about it being an endurance competition for man and machine.. case in point, Denny Hamlin almost fainting after a long day in the “office”, but he pulled it off.   The big tracks (excluding plate track) can get tedious.  The short tracks keep you wound through out.. the intermediate tracks will be those 50/50 experiences!

TZ:  Simple… I expect everything that I didn’t get this past Sunday.  Okay, so maybe that’s not so simple.  To Charlie’s point, interms of the race itself, I expect to see multiple cars competing for the win.  Ten to fifteen cars having a legit shot at winning may be a little steep, but Carl Edwards running away with a 9.5 second lead isn’t exactly what I had in mind.  I know that’s really the main agenda NASCAR had envisioned when they began developing the CoT, but after last weekend, I think it’s evident that they’re pretty far off.  My biggest gripe right now, though, probably lies with Fox’s race coverage.  As long as that race was, it’s beyond me how they managed to be at commercial break during each of the first three lead changes.  They don’t bring you back to the race when a wreck happens during commercial.   And, DW’s an idiot.  Obviously I’m looking forward to ABC/ESPN carrying these races.

That’s what we think.  What do you think?

To read the rest of this weekly vent:

Ganassi is pretty unhappy with his own teams!

How heavy should driver complaints weigh on NASCAR’s decisions?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Shut Up and Drive, Sprint Cup Series, Turn 3 posts 

Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

Comments

3 Responses to “Loose in turn three again”

  1. Loose in Turn 3 (4/11/08) on April 11th, 2008 11:50 am

    [...] Pretty Unhappy With His Own Teams! (Read) - What Do You Expect When You Tune In A Sprint Cup Race? (Read) Tags: Carl Edwards, chip ganassi, chip ganassi racing, michael mcdowell, NASCAR, Sprint Cup [...]

  2. User Avatar Marc on April 11th, 2008 12:16 pm

    Charlie, spot on ‘nough said.

    Bruce - “Egads.. it’s time to blog, nap,clean the yard.. oh, wait, I have the TV on my back patio.. I can kick it and drink my favorite adult beverage.”

    When does the above scenario take place? Well, for one Bruce’s. IT also take place in a slightly smaller scale in the NBA in two separate time frames.

    1. A couple minutes into the second quarter and one team is ahead by 15. You dooze off.

    2. 1 minute left in a tie game and the following occurs: Team A scores, B calls timeout…………..snoooze for 2 minutes of ads.

    Ball in and b scores, calls timeout…………..to the fridge to make the final roast beef and peanut butter with cream cheese sandwich. Ball in team A goes down the court plays toss it around the paint to waste a few seconds… and… team b calls a timeout to swap point guards.

    2 minutes and 3 “not so fresh feeling” ads later the ball is inbounded, team a scores. Now with 10 seconds left A scores to take the lead and you guessed it B calls timeout…another 2 minute ad break, the ball is inbounded, team B flubs it’s final shot and losses.

    Total time to play one minute of game time? 15 minutes!

    And don’t even get my started on the NFL and “TV Timeouts.”

  3. Tim Zaegel on April 11th, 2008 9:48 pm

    Marc, the difference is that at least when we get to that point when the game starts dragging itself out, there’s usually a bit of drama built up by then. At Texas we had to sit through 450+ miles of crap to watch a few decent laps.

    Then again, there may have been a few other decent passes in the race, but FOX didn’t show them.

Got something to say?

Did you know you can log in with your Thunder Lounge account, and have your personal avatar and site link available when you comment at On Pit Row?

Don't have an account yet? Sign-up for free.





Powered by WP Hashcash

Jeff Gordon